The thoughts, semi-thoughts, splenetic rantings and vague half ideas, of a leftie-lib marooned in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Thursday, 1 July 2010

What does this even mean?

Another day, another reason why members of the Labour party should be contemplating not whom to vote for, but how best to put themselves out of their misery. From the Press Association:

Labour needs a "revived politics of Englishness" to restore its electoral fortunes, leadership candidate David Miliband has argued....Instead, he argued, Labour needs "a revived politics of Englishness rooted in a radical and democratic account of nationhood", appealing to "the English commitment to democracy, to equal life chances and to challenging corporate excess". (1)

Without making light of the serious issue raised by Miliband - the almost complete collapse of Labour in the south and east of England - waffle like "a revived politics of Englishness" does nothing to address the problem, and this sort of technocratic non-language only makes David Miliband sound like an idiot.